"Just
a baby" bucket on display in Marion
The Marion Power Shovel
Company, Marion Ohio
Peter Gilewicz
One of the originals: Steam shovel and wrecking car made by
Marion Steam Shovel Company in the 1920's (Photo courtesy
of Marion Power Shovel Co.)
Marion at the Isthmus: The rig that dug the Panama Canal (Photo
courtesy of Marion Power Shovel Co.)
Everyone was looking at the rocket, but it was a Marion transporter
that made launching possible (Photo courtesy of Marion Power
Shovel Co.)
Monster shovel: A Marion Walking Dragline The tiny brown
dot to the right of the machine is a full-sized pickup truck
(Photo courtesy of Marion Power Shovel Co.)
Crawler Mining Shovel (Photo courtesy of Marion Power Shovel
Co.)
Quiet limbo:
Marion's factory

MARION,
OHIO

It
was the same e-mail message that directed us to the Hocking Valley
Train Station Restaurant that enticed us to drive through Marion,
Ohio. "It's the home of President Warren G. Harding, the Marion
power shovel that built the Panama Canal and Paul Newman Popcorn,"
read the missive from Chris, a native Ohioan who now lives in Los
Angeles.

We
drove through town looking for steam shovels, and came upon a big
bucket by the side of the road. The plaque on it read, "Marion
Steam Shovel Company Plant, Est. 1884." It didn't say anything
about the Panama Canal, so we went across the street toward what
looked like an office building to make enquiries.

The
receptionist inside told us that the bucket we'd seen was just a
baby. She introduced us to Peter Gilewicz, who took the time to
give us a brief history of the power shovel and the company that's
been making them for over a century.

"You've
arrived here at the end of an era," he said. "Marion has
been purchased by its competitor, and the plant will probably close
down soon. Our products are used mainly for coal mining, and demand
for them has decreased."

Marion
started its illustrious history as the Marion Steam Shovel Company.
Marion shovels were used extensively in the building of the Panama
Canal. By the end of the 1920's, steam had passed into history as
a power source, and Marion changed its name to Marion Power Shovel
Company. Today's huge Walking Draglines are powered by electricity.

Marion
equipment has been on hand for numerous other engineering triumphs.
In June, 1931, the contract to provide shovels for the Hoover
Dam project was awarded to Marion, and in the sixties, Marion
built special crawler transporters for moving launch vehicles and
their payloads from the staging building to the launch pad at Cape
Canaveral. The transporter used in the Apollo program is still used
today for launching the Space Shuttle.

The
most impressive item in Marion's current product line is the Walking
Dragline. One of these monsters is bigger than a supermarket, and
its bucket can dig a swimming pool in one scoop. The pieces are
made at the Marion plant and shipped to the site, usually a coal
mine. A team of welders, electricians and engineers arrives to assemble
everything, a project that takes as long as a year. When it's complete,
the Dragline really does ‘walk.' It has two feet that allow it to
move itself backwards, robot- style. In addition, it can swivel
360 degrees, and the biggest models have a dump range longer than
a football field. Want one? For a mere US$50 million, you can own
your own.

Peter
also told us about the Crawler Draglines and Mining Shovels that
use tank-like treads to move, and explained how machines this big
can operate on electricity. "Mines have their own substations,"
he said, "And the Draglines are connected by a massive cable."
Believe it or not, these monsters actually operate by extension
cord!

At
its height, Marion Power Shovel employed over 2,500 people. Now
that number has shrunk to around 300. The plant was quiet the day
we visited. "We're in a sort of limbo," said Peter. "The
purchasing company is based in Wisconsin, and we'll just have to
see what happens." We left Marion and headed southwest toward
Cincinnati, glad to have been able to say hello before the town
has to say good-bye to the shovels that have carried its name since
1884.